Oklahoma City, to be exact, for all day meetings involving new software I need to learn. This would mark my first journey to the "Sooner State". Or is it the "Prairie State"? Or is it "Native America", as their license plates read? I wasn't sure. Granted, there is a tremendous Native American history there, and many people know about the Sooners claiming their plots of land before they could legally do so during the great land rush. But the city of Oklahoma City itself didn't make much of an impression on me. Yeah, there's an NBA team located there, but as a visitor to Oklahoma's capital, I found it almost lacking its own true identity. This kinda bugged me. ...More on that later.
Regardless, I was still excited to go. I'm always excited to travel for work; and when it involves some place new, well then that's just frosting on a traveling cake. My boss and two coworkers also made the trip. They returned the following day, but I decided to spend the weekend and get to know the place a little better.
After arriving on a Thursday evening, we sought out a local eatery for dinner. We ended up at a German restaurant that had some great schnitzel and bratwurst. Sehr gut!
The next day I woke up early and loaded my belongings into the rental car and waited for the others. The sun hadn't come up yet, but the sky was brightening in anticipation of the rising sun. The air was crisp and chilly and felt great! As I was walking to the car I couldn't help but sing quietly, "Oh What a Beautiful Morning!" from Oklahoma!
After the meetings, I dropped off everyone at the airport and began my 2 day exploration of Oklahoma.
Muskogee, OK, USA
One thing kept coming back to mind... and it was a song, of course. Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee" echoed enough between my ears that I had to go visit the town nestled about 1 1/2 hours east of OKC.
I was impressed with Muskogee. A bit larger than I thought, it had a certain charm to it. Some great architecture in the buildings around town, including many nice residences. I sought out the courthouse and asked a couple locals if they wouldn't mind taking my picture. They obliged ( I noted that neither one "let their hair grow long and shaggy"). But I was able to verify in person that "they still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse (by golly)".
As I drove away, I pointed to the horizon and yelled "Look! White lightening" and, sure enough, everyone went absolutely berserk!* Kinda like the scene from "ELF" when Buddy the Elf hears that Santa is coming.
(*ok, that didn't really happen)
Norman
Before the Oklahoma Sooners football team kicked off against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, I ventured into the college city of Norman, OK - home of Oklahoma University and the Sooners, who at the time were undeafeated and heavily favored to beat Tech.
I drove around the campus and explored the streets which also had a great deal of charm and personality. The place was very nice and I liked it quite a bit. I stopped by Van's Pig Stand on Porter road near campus and partook of some tasty vittles of Oklahoma BBQ. The sauce they had was VERY good, and the brisket and sausage were delectable; but I must be honest and say that the BBQ in Central-East Texas is better.
The Norman crowds and stormin' clouds were both gathering quickly, and I decided to head back to OKC before it became too hectic. Rain and lightening crashed down hard a short time later and delayed the game by nearly two hours; but when the skies cleared, the Red Raiders surprised the Sooners and handed them their first defeat of the season.
Oklahoma City
Back in Oklahoma City, a looming question persisted. I wanted to figure out what makes OKC, and Oklahoma in general, tick.
There's no distinguishing landmark in Oklahoma City - no Times Square or Statue of Liberty, no Space Needle, no Sears Tower or Golden Gate Bridge; there's no Bourbon Street, no Gas Lamp District, no Capitol Mall. There's no dramatic natural presence of sandy beaches or majestic snow capped mountain vistas; yet the OKC metro area has a population of close to 1.3 million and growing. They're doing something right in Oklahoma and it keeps drawing more people to the place. I was curious to find out why.
I made it a point to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Now, I don't want to say that I forgot about that horrific day, when so many innocent people were killed by an act of domestic terrorism, because i hadn't; but for some reason my brain wasn't correlating the event with the place. And I felt bad about that lapse. The grounds at the memorial where beautiful and solemn. And I wasn't really prepared for what I would see there, but I'm very grateful that I made the time to stop and visit and remember. So many lives were lost in an instant because of the acts of just a couple people. And so many of the victims were little children.
The woman's voice continues outlining the details of the hearing at hand when suddenly there is an incredible explosion... and chaos ensues, and amid the terrible sounds of destruction, you can discern the lady's voice frantically urging everyone to get out, get out as quick as they can. And at that very moment on the tour, at the opposite end of the room another door opens and you proceed into an area which exhibits the resulting destruction. It is powerful and moving, upsetting and heart-rending.
Most disturbing is the scene of destruction involving the day care on the 2nd floor where so many small and innocent children were killed. "The Field of Empty Chairs" occupies a green lawn in the footprint where the Murrah Building once stood wherein sits a chair for each bombing victim, all of them arranged in rows correlating to the floor they were on when they died. And on the second row there is a line of small chairs for the children, which appear as if to float in the air during the day and whose bases light up at night.
On the other side of the reflecting pool stands a large 100 yr old American Elm, which withstood the blast and was dubbed the "Survivor Tree". It became a symbol of the faith and resilience of the people of Oklahoma City and those who came to their aid in their time of need. An inscription around the inner wall of the Survivor Tree monument reads: The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us.
Until then Oklahoma City seemed like about any other city dotting the Great Plains, nothing really made it stand out. But then I realized that it was a poster city for middle America - the Heartland. In it resided deep-rooted faith, a sense of community, brotherly kindness, family, charity, resourcefulness, integrity, hard work, perseverance and hope.
I guess one could say these same values and traits can be found in any other middle America city; whether it be in Des Moines, Kansas City, Omaha, Tulsa, Amarillo... or any other city in "fly-over country". And that may be true. But now I understood the draw to these places; why people move to these places, and stay; why such places play such an integral part in representing what is good about this country, and how it would be well for every part of the U.S. to exude that same American Spirit that is so prominent in Middle America. The amber waves of grain are in good hands.
